


Day 5 - Water

by a_verysmallviolet



Series: Korra Appreciation Week 2015 [5]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Character Study, Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-03-12 06:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3347498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_verysmallviolet/pseuds/a_verysmallviolet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the end, she always comes back to water.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day 5 - Water

In the end, she always comes back to water.

Fire’s crackling heat, earth’s steadiness to ground her, even the elusive and mysterious nature of air: she knows and cherishes all these. But it’s no surprise that she chose water to fight Amon when cornered and frightened outside a mountain cabin. She chose water to drag Unalaq down during their fight, water to capture Zaheer and bring him spiraling down. All four elements blaze, cohere, soar along her chi paths. Only water is in her blood.

Water can be an ice dart, colder and harder than diamonds. Water can be a tide, a storm, a river in raging spate. Water can be the sheen through which Korra sees two figures in blue standing on the steps of Air Temple Island.

Korra takes one unsteady step forward, takes another. Then she starts running.

“Mom!”

Tight arms encircle her; she hugs back just as fiercely. 

“I missed you so much, sweetheart,” Korra hears whispered in her ear.

“I missed you too. Oh, spirits. I missed you.”

Big arms enfold them both. Korra catches the familiar scent of oiled leather and warm skin. Tonraq is a strong man – from childhood, she has always sworn that he is one of the strongest men she knows – but his arms are shaking, and she hears sniffling from over her head. Senna is crying outright. Korra’s eyes sting too as she hugs her parents even tighter.

The Avatar stands for balance; nationless, they belong to all nations. But, in the end, it was not among humid jungle heat or rolling grasslands that Korra grew up, that she now carries in her bones and heart. It was in the South, under a night sky filled with stars clearer than ice, where warm furs warded against the cold. In times of need her eyes glow Avatar-white. In times of peace, her eyes are blue.

She’s set foot on every continent, mastered every element. She’s walked with equal ease through a bustling metropolis and a countryside without another human soul for miles around. For a long time, she lost herself. Even now, she’s only just finding herself again.

But she knows this. However far she wanders, there will always be two figures in blue waiting at journey’s end. In the end, she still has this direction of her compass – not north, but south - shining thin and sure as silver in her mind.

In the end, she always comes back.


End file.
